Beth Morgan Multiple Myeloma Treatment Blog
My life as a myeloma patient for almost two decades
I made it home yesterday. I’m SO glad to be here. I went straight to bed when I got home, and slept for what felt like forever. I got up at 5:30 this morning, walked the dog and then went back to bed until 10:30. It felt great to sleep in. It’s nice not to be on anyone else’s schedule. I found myself feeling bored this afternoon, but that passed. :)
Thanks to everyone who made this easier for me. You all know who you are. Thanks especially to Rachel and Monica.
More tomorrow!
The only thing I have to report today is that my WBC is 4.7! Can you believe it? As soon as I get the rest of the results, I’ll post them. It was mentioned that I might get to go home earlier than predicted.
I forgot to mention that I had my head shaved on Saturday. My hair started to fall out some, so my sister went ahead and gave me a buzz cut. Since then, it’s been falling out like crazy. I could be bald in a few days.
It’s been 11 days since the first day my stem cells were infused. Time seems to be passing by very slowly, which can be torture at times.
I’ve been having some issues at home, which make me wish I was out of here and back home. My dog is going to be boarded Monday, I hope, which will resolve one of the problems I have. My housesitter has been unreliable, and I’ve found out that my dog has been left alone some nights. I also found out that my cat was left shut in a room for at least a day with no way out. It’s too hard to have to worry about getting better and what’s happening (or not happening) at home.
I called my neighbors, and they’ll keep an eye on things for me.
Other than that, I can report that my WBC went up yesterday to 0.3 from 0.2. My platelets were low at 14, and my HGB was 9.6.
Overall, I feel ok. I’m tired, so I just sleep when I need to. The mucositis is getting a little better. Not so much in the lower GI area, but better in mouth and throat. Oh, except that I hurt my throat this morning on a sharp piece of English muffin. The English make some dangerous food, so beware.
I’ve had some very strange problems with two of my toes. They’re extremely black & blue. I’ll have pictures, of course.
I’ll get my labs soon, I hope, so I can report on today’s results.
I had some good news today. My white count doubled! It went from 0.1 to 0.2. Progress is being made.
I need platelets and potassium today, so I’m going to get hooked up and I’ll write more later.
Joyce is in treatment area B, too, but she’s in a room by herself. I think that’s meant to protect us all from the icky stem cell smell. My new nickname for her is “stinky.”
I’m here in treatment room B, where my friend Joyce is just starting the SCT process. She recorded a note for you all. :)
This was day+6. My counts were as follows:
HGB: 11.4
WBC: 1.3
PLT: 50
I also tried my my hand at a podcast, just to see how that goes. Most days I don’t really feel like typing. I make too many typos, and I get bored with it too easily. I can’t remember when was the last time I felt so bored and just wanted to sleep, like I do now.
This will be day +3. Yesterday wasn’t too terrible. I had a few periods of nausea. A local Reiki practictioner came to the apartment to help me through the second one. It really did help. I ended up asleep, which was good. If you’ve had a stem cell rescue of any kind, I wonder if you experienced the intense discomfort I did when the cells were being infused? I felt pressure/discomfort/pain across my midsection. It was unpleasant. I don’t mean to scare anyone, but if that did happen to you too, you weren’t alone. I have a way to go before I can go home. They expect that I could go as early as day +16. Right now I feel just fine. When I wake up for real, in a couple of hours, I’ll try to find my labs and record them here.
Even though I’m still having more stem cells infused today, it’s still called day +1. Yesterday was uncomfortable. I believe it was a reaction to the preservative, DMSO. I felt a great deal of pressure and discomfort in my chest while the stem cells were being infused. Luckily, there are fewer to do today.
I’m keeping up on the ativan and compazine to try to avoid any nausea. So far, I’ve felt a little queasy, but nothing major. I’ve been told that after day 5, I should be past that.
My iPod broke last night, so Todd went and got another one for me. I have some things to transfer over.
I just saw Dr. Long, who is a great doctor. I highly recommend him if you’re in the market for a stem cell transplant.